Netflix Reviews

Pros

culture of excellence in all ways

Cons

small scale teams means less opportunity for variety than other firms

Pros

Like many of the reviews have already said, Netflix does offer some nice employee benefits, especially the employee stock purchase program (take a look at what Netflix stock has been doing, the last couple of years - you'll wish you'd bought in 2007)

I've met some great people while working there, both peers and supervisors.

For the most part, customer support is incredibly easy, because the service itself works pretty smoothly. When it doesn't, CS reps have the power to make things right for customers, which is fabulous.

Unlimited time off (within reason, and when it's available) is awesome.

Cons

Ultimately, the cons outweigh the pros. I will be voluntarily leaving Netflix for a new job in the very near future.

Netflix treats employees like they're completely expendable. I realize that no one is indispensable to a company, but Netflix uses up employees like I use up tissues when I have a cold. The turnover is ridiculous, and it doesn't have to be that way.

For CS reps, the main statistic used to determine our "worthiness" is the DSAT. Customers get asked a simple question after contacting customer service: "Were you satisfied with the call?" A "no" response counts against the rep, even if it was something the rep couldn't control (I'm sorry, it looks like your bank declined your card for this month's service fee.), or the customer was making an unreasonable demand (I got a disc that won't play! Give me six months of free service or I'm cancelling!). Netflix's stance is that we should be able to sugar-coat bad news so well that the customer doesn't hang up unhappy. This method of measurement is incredibly flawed and has led to reps "gaming" the system to avoid "no" responses.

Netflix does not give raises. Period. Not for cost of living, not for length of time employed, not even for outstanding performance. I have worked there 3+ years and my stats have been stellar the whole time. So stellar, I'm one of the people they have trainees shadow, to hear how to handle calls properly. I have *never* gotten a raise. Monetarily, Netflix considers my value to be the same as a new hire who just got out of training.

No paid time off. (Unless I want to take a pay cut and bank that toward paid time off.)

Mandatory overtime during the holidays. (They're promising it won't happen again this year, but that's what they said last year ... and we had mandatory overtime for three months last winter. And the winter before.)

Extremely limited career options - unless you want to be a CS supervisor, you're pretty much out of luck at the call center.

Narrow-focus hiring - Netflix hires people with EXACTLY the skills they need for a particular position. If that position goes away, so does the person. There is very little provision for cross-training or retraining a good employee to fit them in somewhere else.

TRaSE - one exception to the cross-training policy has been TRaSE, which is a disaster, so far. TRaSE combined the department that handles streaming tech support escalations with the department that handles loss prevention: billing fraud, shipping issues, physical inventory problems and website content issues. They all received cross-training, and even though there's more people to handle problems now, CS reps can never get a response when they have an urgent loss prevention issue. Reps have to tell customers "someone will get back to you within 1-3 business days." What happened to "one call resolution"? There's a guaranteed "no" response for my DSAT. Thanks a lot.

Workforce Management can't seem to forecast how much staff is needed; we will have weeks where they offer to let reps go home early every day, and then a couple of weeks later, they're offering voluntary extra hours and begging people to stay after their shifts. This is probably related to the fact that Marketing doesn't feel like they need to let anyone know about promotions until the last minute.

Speaking of Marketing, they don't seem to feel a need to ask anyone what kind of impact various promotions will have on the rest of Netflix's operations. The "no credit card necessary for a free trial" promo was a fiasco, much of which could have been avoided by asking some seasoned reps a few key questions.

The same can be said about some of the "tests" that Engineering sets up on the website. Isn't it logical to maybe ask a few questions of the people who actually talk to the customers before you try something out? I realize that we need to find out what works and what doesn't, but if a "test" makes the service unusable or unpalatable for a customer and they call to complain, CS reps can't remove them from the "test". Netflix is willing to lose the customer because that's a valid "test result". There has to be a better way.

The Canadian service was launched prematurely, in my opinion. Many of the calls we get from Canadian customers center on the lack of content, especially newer releases. The Canadian streaming library will grow, just like the US library, but that's not a satisfying answer to Canadian customers. Thanks for another "no" response on my DSAT, Marketing department!

Advice to Senior Management

The service works so well. Figure out a way to make your human resources department work at least half as well. You are losing good employees at a ridiculous rate, which is going to start affecting customer satisfaction, and ultimately, your bottom line. Dealing with the general public is stressful enough; your outstanding employees shouldn't have to deal with unfair treatment from you, as well.

Pros

Challenging and yet very collaborative workplace. Shared goal without politics. Lots of moving parts hence a lot of things to learn. Excellent Pay. Free Lunches.

Cons

Similar trappings of a growing company but nothing surprising that I have not already seen in one form or another with other companies I worked for in the past.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace some form of process. Process can be useful if applied in the correct way and still enable any group to be flexible and role with schedule.

Pros

Above average pay compared to the industry standard. Casual work attire policy.

Cons

Inadequate, poorly-trained management. Very little emphasis on feedback to employees. No paid vacation.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees. Don't treat them like cattle. If you don't have any sense of loyalty to your employees, they won't hesitate to leave for a better offer elsewhere. Your company has about 25% turnover, easily. Why do you think that is?

Pros

Nice location
New management that has been brought in knows what they are doing
Free coffee and Netflix account
Benefits are ok
Pay is good

Cons

Really scary place to work. There is so much fear in the culture in the call center that it is difficult to work there. The new Director is a joke. He has no idea what he is doing and is making decisions that will hurt the call center. There are few people who respect him as a leader and we look to our Managers for guidance.
There is no clear direction and even though they talk about coaching their people it is not true. The coaching has no impact and people are fired due to not being supported properly.
There are so many other Supervisors looking for jobs because they cannot stand it there. I cannot wait to get a new job.
Attrition there is so high. You can see new people brought in and the next few months they are gone. I have never seen a place tat makes so many snap decisions on people which supports the fact that Netflix does not focus on people development.

Advice to Senior Management

Have senior management from corporate due focus groups to see how poorly this place Is being run. I have worked in call centers before and if the leadership does not change things then they will have a hard time hiring people. None of my friends will come to work here because they know the reputation. People stay away. It is the worst place to work in Oregon.

Pros

* Hires only senior staff
* High salary, benefits
* Extreme, Agile
* Psudo-unlimited vacation policy
* Great experience

Cons

* High turnover, No loyalty.
* Fear of being perceived as complacent despite monotony.
* Monitor your burnout.

Advice to Senior Management

Thanks for the workaholic rush. It was worth the ride.

Pros

Good pay, good benefits, awesome co workers

Cons

This is one of the most stressful work environments I have EVER worked at. Seems like no one has worked there longer than a year. Everything is based on your dissatisfied percentage and its impossible to satisfy everyone. ESPECIALLY when it is a dsat about service not rep. To Netflix, its the same damn thing. My supervisor was horrible and they all just sit together and chat all day. Almost seems like arent doing a damn thing.

Advice to Senior Management

If your employees werent so stressed out all the time, maybe you would see better performance.

Pros

high salaries
fast pace environment

Cons

company mentality: full-time employees are long term contractors
experienced managers turn down Netflix opportunities due to a known short average "life span" of mid and low-level managers at the company (for example, IT and OPS managers usually last about 1 year)
an employee can be laid off just because their project is over or he does not have skills for a new project

Advice to Senior Management

get a new blood not only in a low/mid level but upper management as well

Pros

Freedom and responsibility, that's what Netflix is all about. Sounds like a cliche but they really live it out and conduct the company that way, empowering employees to go forth yet not punish if an idea fails.

Cons

Previously not known for promoting from within but has gotten much better at it recently.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to find a place for superstars whose current jobs have become obsolete. All that investment in the person and their knowledge shouldn't go to waste.

Pros

Free movies! Great co-workers. Some free food. If you are doing well then no problems. Decent pay for the work.

Cons

Monotonous work. High turnover, seeing lots of people disappear is disheartening. Metrics are what you are held to week after week.

Advice to Senior Management

Put a stop to customer satisfaction rate at 6%. Creates a pandering tone to customers where directness and truthfulness might be sacrificed.